Sesame Street’s “Families Near and Far” Great Resource for Kids

Over the past year I’ve interviewed some pretty famous people and have shared those interviews with you – people like Peter Bergen, the military analyst who was the only American journalist to interview Osama bin Laden and then predict bin Laden’s capture would be done by a “boots on ground” effort; great American’s like Lee Woodruff, esteemed author, mother, co-founder of reMIND.org and wife to Bob Woodruff, award-winning journalist who experienced a severe brain injury while covering the stories in Iraq.

One interview that is definitely worth the history books is my interview with Sesame Street’s Abby Caddaby. For those of you who don’t know Abby, she is one incredible four year old fairy-in-training who lives on Sesame Street. She knows what it is like to have a mom who travels and is gone frequently and so Abby has chosen to help other young children learn how to cope – bottom line: her mother helps the big people and Abby helps the small people and she does so through a great resource called Familiesnearandfar.org.

In 2006 Sesame Street launched their support for military families / parents / grandparents, and care givers for military kids with key resources: video, print, and digital. They then expanded to the older children as well and in doing so launched a multi-media website where one can create messages, artwork, pictures, upload videos to family and friends inside their own personal network.

Abby shared that for her it is so important to stay connected and she does so through artwork. She expresses her feelings through artwork and studies show that many children find an emotional release through art. Familiesnearandfar.org provides a safe place to do just that – and to share it with those they trust and love.

The “Feel Electric!” app is a cool resource as well. “Mood dude” is one of the modules in the app for ipad and droid – this self expression app allows your child to express himself or herself through videos and games, which also provides a heads-up to your child’s network on how to be approached.

Of all my interviews this year, I really loved my interview with Abby. She is truly an energetic four year old with a passion to help the little people. She even took a moment to talk with my five year old, which made her day! (“Dad, I just spoke with a real live fairy! How do I become a fairy?” – this is good since she doesn’t like princesses.)